Monday, February 13, 2012

Words and more words.

It's me again. Did you miss me? Do you remember me? No, I'm sure you don't. I'm not even sure I remembered myself. It is, however, time to get over my slump, get back into the game and make something of myself in new and exciting ways.

Part of this remaking is to realize that since I started writing for publication, I've done a lot of just that. It's easy to get overwhelmed by "No", "Almost" and "Not for me." It's even easier to lose sight of what we, as writers, have achieved and where we have succeeded.

So, in that vein, I thought I'd take a moment to cheer myself up and count up the things I've accomplished.

Since The Beginning, fourteen years ago, I have written:

-9 short stories totaling approximately 37,000 words. Two of them were published at a small electronic press. One of them has been published in a professional e-magazine. One of which earned me entry into a writing workshop (I didn't get to attend, but I was invited. That counts for something!)

- Two full length (2-hour) movie scripts. One of which was optioned very briefly. They're 100+ pages a piece but wordcount doesn't measure up the same way. Let's call them 20K a piece for a total of 40,000.

-Two spec scripts for now defunct tv shows. 45 minute episodes, so let's call those 7K a piece, for 14,000.

-One half (dividing the work equally) of the pilot, several episodes, and a partial series bible for tv show I still believe will happen one day.

-One half (again dividing the work equally) of a spin-off tv series that will never happen, but was fun.

-Nine novellas totaling 212,000 words. All but two of those were published at small electronic houses.

-Six and a half novels totaling 450,500+ words. Plus, because I'm not sure exactly how many words that half a novel contains. Quite a few.

This accounting does not include novels/novellas/scripts that were partially completed, because that would just be ridiculous, no matter how many thousands of them are currently inhabiting my hard drives.

Even without the partials, my victories to date equal 746,500 words, give or take. It doesn't compare to what some of my friends have done in the same time, but then, I'm not my friends. They have their roads, I have mine, and all in all, I've done pretty well for myself.

If you're having a rough time of it, and/or feeling like you've accomplished very little for all the time and effort you've put in, I recommend doing this with your own works. If you have completed even one short story, that's a victory.